All Time

Friday, May 15, 2015

Ex Machina

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Geek
Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) gets the chance of a lifetime as he wins the company
raffle, but instead of cash or a trip to some beach paradise, the grand prize involves
a one-on-one meet and greet event with eccentric but very talented company CEO Nathan
Bateman (Oscar Isaac) at his secluded residence cum research facility. He gets
more than what he bargained for, though, when Nathan reveals to him that he is
about to take part in a Turing Test for his latest artificial intelligence
project. A dream come true for any gifted programmer like him, Caleb is tasked
to test Ava (Alicia Vikander), a humanoid robot, whose reactions and advanced intellect
could be mistaken for that of a human being. Things get quite weird when she begins
to intentionally trigger facility-wide power cuts and admit to him that she
does not trust Nathan, convincing him that they should both escape. Is Caleb really
testing Ava? Is Ava the one testing Caleb? Or is Nathan just testing them both?

Movies
like this really convince your brain to work and figure out which is which.
This is hard to do at first, but the reward of eventual cerebral titillation is
really worth it so you enjoy the experience after all. The film is peppered
with random chatter among the three lead characters, most of which cover
various areas of philosophy from existentialism to metaphysics. Before you get
turned off by that, though, be glad to know that the plot does not escalate to
Inception proportions. Ain’t nobody got time for that level of mindfuck
nowadays. This film brings it down a notch so you could think and enjoy at the
same time, giving you a more balanced viewing experience.

Still,
not everyone would appreciate the way the plot of this film unfolds. There is
definitely more talk than action, and the adrenaline rush is mainly derived
from sudden realizations triggered by random revelations, most of which come
from Ava herself. These revelations come in the form of spoken words, not
explosions a la any of Michael Bay’s movies. This means that you really have to
pay attention to the ongoing dialogue among the characters. Otherwise, you
would be missing a lot if you decide to focus more on your popcorn instead.

In
terms of acting, the two guys are convincing enough, but they are not really
required to give you an Oscar-winning performance. Perhaps the real revelation
here is Vikander herself, playing the role of a robot who thinks she is human,
or better yet, that she SHOULD be human. How do you even begin to prepare when
you bag a role like this? But yeah, she is awesome. She plays the part well by
making sure you know that she is AI, but also exuding enough
femininity and sexuality up to a point where you might also be having second
thoughts as to the true nature of the character.

The
open ending leaves room for excitement because of the what-if scenario that it
presents. The director is successful in selling you the idea that such scenario
is possible, and so you end up thinking hard about various hypothetical
stuff that really have no bearing on your daily life, but you would be thinking about
it until you get home and call it a day anyway. Don’t you just love it when a movie
does that to you?